On December 13, Tim Seymour of Seymour Asset Management joined CNBC’s ‘The Exchange’ to discuss whether AI stocks will take a backseat in 2026. Seymour noted that the emergence of AI was fortunate, given that the market in 2022 didn’t look promising. He added that it is a positive sign that the rest of the market is now performing better as the AI trade stumbles. When questioned if the shift could be that easy, Seymour replied that the other 493 stocks (the S&P 500 excluding the top seven or similar group) are not only reaping some of the benefits of AI but are also demonstrating EPS growth and margin accretion, which contrasts with the debated margin degradation seen with companies like Broadcom today. He described the dynamic of rotation as great, but noted it is always relative to where you’re coming from. He suggested that institutional and retail investors are currently heavily overweight in AI and certain parts of the tech trade.
Discussing what happens if investors start to really panic or jump out of the AI trade, or if the current movement is simply profit-taking after a very good year, Seymour reminded investors of where we are coming from, referencing the massive move and substantial rally. He suggested the dynamic involves a large amount of money pushed into the trade that’s somewhere about three years out. He noted that the recent information (over the last couple of days) has raised questions about the future margin profile and the debt profile of customers, which has thrown a different light even on hyperscalers and the MAG7 that were previously free cash flow machines, but suddenly they may not be. This means that these stocks might trade at a different multiple.
That being said, we’re here with a list of the 10 AI stocks under $20 to buy now.
Our Methodology
We sifted through financial media reports and stock screeners to compile a list of top AI stocks under $20. We then selected 10 stocks that were the most popular among elite hedge funds and that analysts were bullish on. The stocks are ranked in ascending order of the number of hedge funds that have stakes in them, as of Q3 2025.
Note: All data was sourced on December 26.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 427.7% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 264 percentage points (see more details here).
10 AI Stocks Under $20 to Buy Now
10. Veritone Inc. (NASDAQ:VERI)
Share Price as of December 26: $5.03
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 11
Veritone Inc. (NASDAQ:VERI) is one of the AI stocks under $20 to buy now. On December 4, Veritone and Armada announced a partnership to integrate edge-based compute and sensing with enterprise-grade AI. The two companies aim to revolutionize data management for public-sector agencies and commercial content owners. The collaboration establishes the industry’s first fully integrated Edge-to-Enterprise Data Fabric to ingest high-volume audio, video, drone, and sensor streams and convert them into actionable intelligence in real time, even in disconnected or low-bandwidth environments.
The partnership combines the Armada Edge Platform/AEP, which includes Galleon modular data centers, with Veritone’s aiWARE AI operating system. This unified offering supports the entire lifecycle of mission-critical data, including capture, AI-powered analytics, secure dissemination, and long-term discovery. The collaboration provides a seamless pipeline from remote sensors to operational impact, specifically designed for the austere or high-velocity environments encountered in national security, public safety, and global live events.
Looking toward the future of data management, Veritone Inc. (NASDAQ:VERI) and Armada are exploring edge-based processing for data tokenization. This initiative aligns with the Veritone Data Refinery/VDR strategy, allowing organizations to convert audio and video inputs into AI-ready digital tokens. This approach enables commercial and federal entities to treat data as a renewable asset class for long-term discovery, training-data licensing, and operational reuse.
Veritone Inc. (NASDAQ:VERI), together with its subsidiaries, provides AI computing solutions and services in the US, the UK, France, Australia, Israel, and India.
9. Rezolve AI (NASDAQ:RZLV)
Share Price as of December 26: $2.85
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 14
Rezolve AI (NASDAQ:RZLV) is one of the AI stocks under $20 to buy now. On December 24, Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage of Rezolve AI (NASDAQ:RZLV) with an Overweight rating and $8 price target. This sentiment was announced as the firm updated its research coverage in the Security & Infrastructure Software sector.
Additionally, on December 23, Rezolve AI announced a significant shift from pilot programs to live enterprise deployments across its global markets, including EMEA, APAC, LATAM, and North America. The company reported that its AI-driven platform is seeing increased demand as retailers move from traditional search models to conversational engagement.
In the MENA region, the UK-headquartered fashion platform VogaCloset transitioned to a fully live status with Rezolve AI’s Conversational Commerce following successful A/B testing. Serving over 250,000 products, the platform saw over 60% of shoppers using image uploads for product discovery and styling. VogaCloset plans to expand this technology to Product Detail Pages and is considering upgrading to the company’s mobile-first Concierge experience as a potential replacement for its current search stack.
Growth in the Indian market is highlighted by a new multi-year agreement with Snapdeal, one of the country’s top five online marketplaces. Snapdeal is currently live with Rezolve Multi-Search and is exploring AI-driven shop the look styling features. Additionally, AJIO, the flagship fashion platform of Reliance Retail with more than $2.5 billion in annual eCommerce sales, has renewed and expanded its partnership to include more premium brand capabilities.
In Latin America, Rezolve has launched live production deployments for GAP and Banana Republic in Mexico. These multilingual systems handle search, enrichment, and SEO at an enterprise scale. The company also continues to grow its relationship with Liverpool, a major regional department store group. Strategic partnerships with regional hyperscalers in LATAM are further driving commercial discussions by providing live evaluations against incumbent technologies.
Rezolve AI (NASDAQ:RZLV) provides generative AI solutions for the retail and e-commerce sectors in the UK and the US.
